Defiant misinformation minister still fighting on media frontline

It was another tough day in front of the cameras for Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. But if the Iraqi minister of information was feeling the strain now that the war has reached Baghdad, he certainly wasn't showing it.

Neat as ever in his rimless spectacles, green Ba'ath party uniform and black beret, the man who is Saddam Hussein's mouthpiece continued to spin loyally for his elusive master yesterday.

"This aggression will end in failure," he said, warning Baghdadis to beware of rumours and lies. "After its destruction, Iraq will remain and it will be led by President Saddam Hussein. This regime will not be destroyed by mercenaries."

Enemy troops, Mr Sahaf insisted to the now familiar forest of microphones at his noon press conference in the city's Palestine Hotel, had been hit by Iraqi missiles in the battle around Saddam International airport.

"We butchered the force present at the airport," he announced. But he did not mention any Iraqi casualties.

Mr Sahaf has become an unlikely media star, combining defiant and abusive language with a subtle awareness of the power of TV propaganda.

He is a master of plain-speaking, Ba'athist style, and appears to have few doubts about his own credibility, despite mounting evidence that much of what he says is quite untrue. He spends most of his time accusing the US and Britain of lying.

Last Wednesday, for example, he denied that American forces had crossed the Tigris. "They lie every day," he said. "Therefore what they say or allege about success and ad vances in Najaf and Kerbala are illusions. They also said they crossed the Tigris, which is another lie. As is what they said about Kut."

Now in his early 60s, Mr Sahaf was studying to be an English teacher in 1963 when he joined a group led by Saddam that targeted opponents of the then underground Ba'ath party.

In 1968, when the Ba'ath party took power, he was charged with securing the radio and television stations and was later put in charge of both outlets. Iraqis recall his bad temper and habit of meting out physical punishment to employees.

Later he served as Iraq's ambassador to India, Italy and the United Nations, foreign minister from 1993 to 2001, and has been information minister since then.

Subliminal messages are interwoven with his cruder points. In two briefings last week, he compared the US and Britain to the Roman Empire, speaking about Roman soldiers who stole from people at night only to offer them protection the next day - clearly suggesting that the objective of the war is to control Iraq's oil wealth under the pretext of ridding the country of Saddam.

Mr Sahaf is not part of the president's inner circle but he has played an important role in formulating Iraq's terminology for the conflict. "The international gang of outlaws," is one phrase he has coined to refer to George Bush and Tony Blair. "Crooks", "mercenaries", "fools", "stooges" and "racists" are also favourites.

His mixture of bombast, exaggerations and lies raises intriguing questions about how much ordinary Iraqis know about what is happening at this fateful moment. Late last week he was still scoffing at reports that US forces were at the gates of Baghdad.

"They have no foothold in Iraq," he told reporters. "We will welcome them with bullets and shoes." Being hit with a shoe is a grave insult in the Arab world.

Mr Sahaf has singled out the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, describing him as a "crook" and "the most despicable creature".

"I am sorry for using such language," he said in a recent interview on one of the Arab satellite stations that broadcast his briefings and have made him a star across the Middle East, "but with criminals who are killing the sons of our people with bombs, insults are not enough."